PRIESTHOOD

^[p. 301] PRIESTHOOD

Hebrews 7: 18-28; Hebrews 8: 1, 2

Verse 25 of Hebrews 7 closes one character of priesthood and verse 26 begins another. We poorly apprehend the two sides of priesthood. We are conducted through the wilderness certainly by the Priest, but this is not His proper function. His proper function is to conduct us into where He has gone. This is the side where we are most defective. The point is where He conducts us and how! Succour, sympathy and salvation is our side learnt in being led through, but His side is to lead us into the holiest. We learn Him on our side before qualified to learn Him on His. We are brought to the holiest and thus led up to the Father, though we do not get the truth of the Father in Hebrews. The Lord as Priest engages our affection as the Son and then we are led into the Father’s presence and love. If we get no further than verse 25 we are only kept securely in the wilderness, but not conducted into the Holiest. Every Christian has title, but not many get in. Many saints get no further than the first named. How am I as a Christian to be led into the enjoyment of my title? To come boldly to the throne of grace is for time of need, not the holiest. It tells that grace reigns all along the road, but there is no throne of grace in the holiest. It is the contrast between the throne of grace and the majesty dwelt upon in the Psalms. Mercy is always individual. In the prayer-meeting we are gathered to His name. It rests on Matthew 18. When we pray for the saints we apprehend what a company of saints are as given by the Father to Christ, and then what it is to have the Lord there. Singing is always the thought of fellowship, it draws the hearts together.

The first part of priesthood makes us acquainted ^[p. 302] with the Priest, and in that sense we learn or appropriate Him and His grace. The point of these chapters is to be introduced to the Priest and to appropriate Him. “He that eateth me, even he shall live by me”. It is in trials and necessities that we appropriate Him. In John 6 we have his way of putting the priesthood. We get the Apostle spoken of as on God’s side, and the Priest on our side. We get our title in knowing the Apostle. He makes known the will and pleasure of God. The Priest conducts us into the reality of our calling. It is the Son who is the Priest because we are to be conducted to the Father. It is by the Son we are spoken to in Hebrews 1. We must get to “the sum” referred to in chapter 8 before we can say we have Him. All that goes before is preparatory. We get experience in knowing Him in grace when in infirmity and distress, and so learn how to enter in through the affections. If you have not experience you have not appropriated the Priest, but experience will not take you into the holiest. Faith appropriates the work, love the Person. Love appropriates Himself. We will not appropriate in eternity, that is for here, but all links of affections will be fixed in eternity. The heavenly calling must have a Priest suitable to the heavenly calling as an earthly priest was suitable to an earthly calling. The Priest indicates the calling and raises us to the height of it. When dealing with an earthly people the Priest must know infirmity, but now God is bringing many sons to glory and the Priest must be a Son for we are brought into relationship. The Son is perfected for ever. He has gone through it all and is bringing many sons to glory.

The sanctuary is the figure of the revelation of God and the service of God, which depends upon the revelation. All Christian service is the souls of saints entering into and enjoying the light in which God has been pleased to make Himself known to us. Christ leads into that as Minister of the Sanctuary both as ^[p. 303] Moses and Aaron. As Apostle He brings in the light of the Sanctuary, as the Priest with all that is consistent with the Sanctuary. He conducts us in in the power of His life. It is all on that line, for if the Lord is supreme in our affections we will then know what it is to be carried in. Christianity becomes uncommonly simple when we see it is a system of affections, but faith cannot conduct me in. I think saints have not seen the divine thoughts in Hebrews. Hebrews aims at getting the saints connected with the affections of the Priest, and this leads us into the Father’s presence. Few apprehend the extraordinary privilege of knowing Christ without a veil, not the glory veiled as we find it in Luke’s gospel. In the gospel by John it is gone. In the millennium saints will not be unveiled as in Christianity. He will be known as the Son who rules, but not as leading us into the holiest. There is no veil on Him but a deal on us. The obstruction between God and man is always flesh, in us it is evil. It is only through His death we can get free of the flesh. If you contemplate His glory you are through the veil. As we are free of flesh we shall be free of veil. We shall then behold His glory. Christianity is a system of divine affections, and priesthood leads or engages the hearts of God’s people in that way.

What introduces is the response of affections on our side. The Priest must have something to present to God — He leads us in. The one who has not the enjoyment of the Priest’s love has not reached the sum of it; namely, that He has the supreme claim upon our affections. Faith will never take you into heavenly places, but affections will. The other is a mistake. We must connect Hebrews with affections, its object to conduct us now into the Father’s presence. We have all failed in the apprehension of this. There is nothing more wonderful than this, that the Priest conducts us into where He is. You must know something of what it is to be loved with the same love.

^[p. 304] The assembly from God is the vessel of display. We cannot know the Supper except through the table, fellowship with His death. The table means this fellowship. What we need is to get to the Lord. The thought of being gathered on the ground of the one body gives the wrong idea of something set up. The Lord’s table contemplates the complete fellowship of all Christians. It belongs to every Christian in the place, but it is difficult to realise it. You cannot get at the Lord’s supper except through the table and the table is altogether moral in its aspect, nothing material. The fellowship of His death is not limited to Lord’s day morning. People are not happy at the Supper if they are not in the fellowship of His death. If we were in the fellowship of His death all the week we should be better fitted to remember Him at His supper. You come together because you are in fellowship. There cannot be any greater mistake than setting up anything. It is only setting up another sect. It may be a correct one, but only a correct sect. If we saw the church in ruins it would lead us to the Lord and it is only the Lord who can guide through it all. The very principle of Christianity is collective. There are two lights in which you may see the assembly.

You may see it God-ward or coming from God as the heavenly Jerusalem. Christ’s assembly is the assembly God-ward, and in that relation He is the Firstborn among many brethren. The bride and the body come in as the vessel of display. However the church may fail as the vessel of display it cannot possibly touch her privilege, but you must not set up to be anything, for the church has completely failed. The one body is here, and there never was a moment in the history of the church when it was not here. Depend upon it if your eyes are open to the ruin around you will get to the Lord, and then we should have much more real fellowship, for the nearer you are to the Lord the more real fellowship you have, but we ^[p. 305] have very little sense of being close to the Lord. It is very important to see the prominence that is given in Paul’s last epistle to Timothy to the Lord. “The Lord stood by me”, “the Lord delivered me”, etc. The Lord must be a great reality to us if we want to get right in a day of trouble. When troubles come along people go to pamphlets instead of to the Lord. Joseph had the food, and all was given to Him as to guidance and rule. The people had only to go to him. Pharaoh knew no one so wise as Joseph so he set him up to administer and he administered blessing. You get the two thoughts in David, too. He fed them and he led them. Some think that knowing the Lord means knowing the Saviour, but Timothy knew the Lord in a day of ruin in a very special way. His power is enough for the darkest day.